BUILDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR COMMON FUTURE BUDGET STATEMENT FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2012/2013 DELIVERED BY THE HONOURABLE DR. KENNY D. ANTHONY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR FINANCE, ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, PLANNING, & SOCIAL SECURITY TUESDAY MAY 8, 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 4 1.1 The Courage to Believe, to Act ..................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Discipline in Decision Making, Doing Business Differently ......................................................... 5 1.3 A Budget with a New Focus ......................................................................................................... 5 2. EXTERNAL ECONOMIC PERFOMANCE ............................................................................................. 6 2.1 Global Economic Performance ..................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Regional Economies ..................................................................................................................... 6 3. REVIEW OF THE DOMESTIC ECONOMY ........................................................................................... 6 3.1 Economic Performance for 2012 .................................................................................................. 7 3.2 Central Government Fiscal Operations in FY2011/12 ................................................................. 8 3.3 Short Term Prospects ................................................................................................................... 9 4. A STRATEGY FOR RECOVERY ............................................................................................................ 9 4.1 Curing the Deficit ........................................................................................................................ 10 4.2 Managing Our Debt .................................................................................................................... 10 4.3 Finding the Right Growth Paths ................................................................................................. 12 4.4 Three Point Plan for Recovery ................................................................................................... 12 5. PRIORITY ONE: JOB CREATION ....................................................................................................... 13 5.1 Proposed Employment Measures .............................................................................................. 14 5.2 From LEAP to NICE ...................................................................................................................... 14 5.3 Single Mothers Employment Programme (SMILES) .................................................................. 16 5.4 Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP) ................................................................................... 17 5.5 Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurship Programme .................................................................... 18 5.6 Short Term Employment Programme (STEP) ............................................................................ 18 6. PRIORITY TWO: CONSTRUCTION STIMULUS ................................................................................. 19 6.1 Build Saint Lucia – A Construction Stimulus Package ............................................................... 20 6.2 Reducing Finance Costs for Construction .................................................................................. 21 7. PRIORITY THREE: FISCAL CONSOLIDATION .................................................................................... 21 Page 1 of 70 7.1 Broadening Revenue Base through VAT .................................................................................... 22 7.2 Revising Taxes on Incomes ......................................................................................................... 30 7.3 Increasing Application Fees for Alien’s Landholding Licenses .................................................. 31 7.4 Reform of the Property Tax Regime .......................................................................................... 31 7.5 Managing Fuel Costs (“Pass Through Mechanism”) ................................................................. 32 8. RELIEF MEASURES .......................................................................................................................... 33 8.1 Reducing Debts Owed to the State & State Enterprises ........................................................... 33 8.2 Relief to Patients Indebted to Victoria & St Jude’s Hospitals ................................................... 33 8.3 Relief to Customers of WASCO .................................................................................................. 34 8.4 Helping the Hotel Sector with Outstanding HAT ....................................................................... 35 9. MANAGING PUBLIC SECTOR ASSETS ............................................................................................. 36 9.1 Better Approaches to Public Sector Assets ............................................................................... 36 9.2 Bois D’Orange Hypermart Property Saga .................................................................................. 37 10. SECTORAL POLICIES & INITIATIVES ................................................................................................ 39 11. PRODUCTIVE SECTOR INITIATIVES ................................................................................................. 39 11.1 Revised Incentives for Manufacturing and Tourism ................................................................. 39 11.2 Business Development & Doing Business Better ...................................................................... 40 11.3 Tourism Development ................................................................................................................ 42 11.4 A Creative Economy ................................................................................................................... 43 11.5 Agriculture & Fisheries Development ........................................................................................ 43 12. ENABLING SECTOR INITIATIVES ..................................................................................................... 46 12.1 Roads Infrastructure................................................................................................................... 46 12.2 Hewanorra Airport Redevelopment .......................................................................................... 49 12.3 Water Resource Management ................................................................................................... 50 12.4 Energy & Communications ......................................................................................................... 51 12.5 Public Transport ......................................................................................................................... 53 13. SOCIAL SECTOR INITIATIVES ........................................................................................................... 53 13.1 Education Policies & Initiatives .................................................................................................. 53 13.2 Health.......................................................................................................................................... 55 Page 2 of 70 13.3 Social Transformation Priorities ................................................................................................ 56 13.4 Housing Initiatives Related to Hurricane Tomas Disaster......................................................... 57 13.5 Youth Development & Sport ...................................................................................................... 58 14. TRANSFORMING PUBLIC SERVICES ................................................................................................ 59 15. NATIONAL SECURITY ...................................................................................................................... 60 16. CONSTITUENCY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME ............................................................................ 61 17. FINANCING THE BUDGET ................................................................................................................ 61 17.1 Sources of Funding ..................................................................................................................... 61 17.2 Allocation of Expenditure .......................................................................................................... 62 18. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 63 NOTE ON FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... 64 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................................ 64 APPENDIX I: SUMMARY OF 2012/13 ESTIMATES BY AGENCY ........................................................... 66 APPENDIX TWO: 2012/3 RECURRENT EXPENDITURE BY CLASS ...........................................................